Living with mental health disorders and coping when others don't understand. Dealing especially with Bipolar Disorder and Dissociative Identity Disorder also known as DID and Multiple Personalites. This site focuses mainly on these disorders and child sexual and physical abuse.

My parts have felt very, very comfortable with my therapist and it’s a good thing.

I’ve been seeing and smelling things that seem like memories. I’ve been doing pretty good keeping nice and calm about what I see and being really reassuring to my parts.

Other parts that I haven’t seen for several years have reappeared, seemingly as manager parts to tackle what’s been happening and what we hope happens.

I’m not scared of my parts anymore, also a good thing.

I am afraid though. I keep having moments that really drive home the fact that I do have DID (I’m not a drama queen, attention-seeking, perverted etc) and when these moments happen, that’s when I get scared. If I’ve split, there’s a very good reason that I did and that means that something really bad happened to me. That’s the hard part to accept, the scary part. I’m afraid of what I’ll see and what I’ll feel, for instance fear. The idea of re-experiencing the fear freaks me out. It freaks my parts out.

My therapist hopes that I will not relive anything but she can’t promise and we know that.

At this point I think the truth just needs to come out so we can deal with it instead of stressing about what we may or may not see.

A person has the right to control who touches their body. That’s it. No arguments. No excuses. No buts.

I am freaking sick of feeling like I have to be polite when someone who makes me extremely uncomfortable touches me.

A guy I know makes me extremely uncomfortable. He’s in our church (so I see him regularly), he’s married and for years he has paid extra attention to me and tried to befriend my husband and I (he really wants to be my husband’s friend). He has kind of a simple mind, I don’t know how else to put it. He may be mentally challenged a little? Is that the correct term? He’s very immature and it shows in many ways. I won’t get into the reasons we don’t want to be friends. It’s his personality not his limitations.

He married a woman who is absolutely mentally challenged and I mean that literally, like medically, psychologically and emotionally. Like, I wish someone had stopped her back then by getting power of attorney over her. It’s…not good.

I’m not going into their relationship. The point is that this guy will not give up. With my husband he tries to bond over the one thing they both like, a movie series. That’s it. He can’t talk about anything else, he’s obsessed with it. But it’s like a kid who likes a TV show when they’re young and they can only talk to grownups about their favorite show nothing else.

With me his interactions are different though. He talks to me about two things: my cats and my clothes. Sometimes the movie comes up but not as often.

We’re going to talk about him and what I’m wearing. Most people who like your outfit will simply say they like it. Not this guy. He always says he likes my outfit, like always. But he doesn’t just say it. He reaches out and touches my clothes. Yeah. The last time he ran his finger over my arm while commenting on my top. Uh uh.

There’s a respect between genders among us that keeps things really appropriate. Like, men and women hug (IF WE’RE FRIENDS AND THAT’S HOW WE ARE TOGETHER)and are buddies and we hang out etc but we don’t cross these commonsense lines. No other guy I know would ever, ever stroke my arm. I have a bunch of guy friends and we hug but they wouldn’t do that, do you get what I mean about the difference? Hell I would never do that either.

Married or single it doesn’t matter. And where we are has nothing to do with it. If a guy came up to you, said he liked your sweater and then stroked his finger over your arm, what would you think!? How would you feel? It wouldn’t be normal. If you were into each other maybe you’d feel different.

Anyway, this guy pulled that stunt about two or three weeks ago and it’s still eating at me.

I talked to my therapist obviously and yeah, it’s not okay that some guy is touching me again in a way I don’t like!

The problem is that since he doesn’t touch me every time, it throws me when he does and I don’t know what to say. At times I’ve gotten really distant with him afterwards, like I go the other direction if I see him, I keep my face stony and if he tries to talk to me I give a very terse answer and refuse to even look at him so he go away.

Inevitably though after time passes, even months, I feel rude and try to be polite again and the cycle repeats.

My therapist stated that I’ve got to stop him, even if it embarrasses him.

Now that’s interesting. Not wanting to embarrass him is what’s stopped me from firmly telling him to never touch me again.

How many times do women put up with behavior that makes them uncomfortable because they don’t want to “cause a scene” or embarrass someone? A lot.

I just woke up from dreaming about this guy being in my house and making me uncomfortable. How jacked is that!? It’s bothering me in my dreams!!!!

I have to finally decide that I’m going to say something and DO IT! What I’m going to say I don’t know. My therapist was, of course, right to the point, no prevarication. Tell him, don’t touch me. Ha! That’s WAY harder than it should be. Why is that????

It should be easy to tell someone “don’t touch me!”

I couldn’t say that when I was a kid.

Kids have no rights over their bodies. If an adult wants to hug them, pick them up, sit them on their lap, the child can’t say no. They’re expected to do it and they would be considered rude if they resisted. A parent would see the child squirm or push away and tell them to ‘stop being rude and hug Aunt so-and-so’.

What if a child is too young to fully understand how those actions or that person makes them feel? They know they don’t like it but they don’t know why? How do they tell an adult?

What if the adults aren’t bad people but the child simply isn’t a “hugger”? It’s ok to not like hugging people. But kids don’t have the right to say they don’t want to hug. Only adults can decide that.

Things have progressed a tiny bit because kids are educated to tell if someone does something wrong but it shouldn’t have to be that extreme. Children shouldn’t have to touch or be touched by anyone if they don’t want to.

So, now…

I have the right to decide who touches me. I have the right to tell them to stop and to never touch me again. It isn’t being dramatic. It’s not being a bitch. It’s not rude. It’s my body. Mine.

I will probably see the guy tonight and if he reaches out I’ve got to slap him down firmly and not dance around it or make it a joke to make it softer. My instinct is to make a joke like, wow what’s with you and touching my clothes haha? Uh uh. That’s no good and he may not get what I’m really saying.

Arrrrrgh!!!! Guys!!!!!! Ugh!!!!! Help me!

I hate this crap but I’ll be damned if I let this dude creep me out in my dreams!

If you could hear the annoyed, exasperated sounds I’m making right now…

***Slight warning of weight talk but it’s about getting back to a healthy BMI. Mentions of body image issues, mostly me grumbling.***

I know, I know, I’m supposed to put part two of my two part therapy story up (does anyone even remember part one? I don’t). I, however, am in a SUPER bad mood. I’m depressed, angry, self-hating…just not good.

I tapered off of Topamax a couple of months ago and promptly gained 10lbs. I cannot deal with that. Let me say that I’ve been in my healthy, yes healthy, BMI for a long time now so gaining that much weight really shook me.

I want to exercise but the knee I had surgery on two years ago has now progressed to having even more problems that my orthopedic doctor says is going to require a total knee replacement at some point, no avoiding it. He said we’d start with kneecap replacement first though. I have hardly any cartilage left now so we’re hoping that my insurance will cover gel injections to take the place of the lost cartilage and help my knee function. If I can exercise I feel like I can get back to a healthy weight.

So…I feel foreign to myself, my body isn’t mine right now, I don’t recognize it and I can’t even look at myself. My skin is in bad shape; dull, dry, some rashes. Another reason to be unhappy.

I see people around me doing things that, while I’m sincerely happy for them, I wish I could do those things too but it’s impossible. I feel like I’ve held my husband back from doing amazing things and using his exceptional gifts. He hasn’t been able to fulfill his true potential because there are so many things I can’t do. I feel extremely guilty and I’m honestly struggling not to show him how upset it’s making me or share these feelings and thoughts with him. It makes me want to cry in my closet.

So, hating myself, being super angry and depressed, that’s me, it sucks, I hate it. I hate everything. I hate everyone. Well…not everyone but you understand what I mean.

You guys understand because so many of you have been there or are there right now. We are a community who understands each other even when no one else does. Even though I’m freakin pissed at everything, I love you guys.

I haven’t forgotten to continue the story I was telling you about my recent sessions in therapy, promise. It’s just very…deep? Complex? Private? All of those things but, I still want to share it. I need to be in the right headspace to write it.

So, it’s going to be posted just hang in there. Right, ’cause you guys are really waiting with bated breath to read my winsome words haha!😂

First of all, I’d like to thank my dear friend Freasha for reminding me to communicate here. I needed it and coming from her meant everything. Thank you.

It is extremely uncomfortable to be truly vulnerable. There are different levels of vulnerability and therefore different levels of discomfort that go with them. It could be a stomach flip of nervousness, a tightening of muscles, an increase in the speed of breathing; all signs of anxiety that come with allowing some part of yourself to be seen by someone else for judgment or rejection or by handing over part of yourself to another person and trusting them with it.

I’ve been experiencing severe vulnerability during my last two or three therapy sessions to the point that two new parts have presented themselves (I have also come to understand that I have a group of parts and an adult part I didn’t know about but that’s kind of separate).

My parts and I made an agreement that instead of acting out in certain ways we would draw pictures. It was in this context that I became aware of a young part who was very sad about the abuse that happened when we were little. Contrasting drawings were done by the her and the group and brought into therapy, this is where things went BANANAS!

When I was trying to talk about the drawings and who drew what and my surprise about the little girl, she came out! I’ve NEVER had a child part come out in therapy! My child parts are my most vulnerable parts! They do not come out! If I was an apple it would be like carving me out to my core. Vulnerability! She put her head on her lap and cried, oh my goodness it was so sad. My therapist tried to talk to her but I don’t think she said anything back to her. THEN….

A new part came out…

The little girl was crying and then I felt this presence. It was strong, powerful and pissed! It took control and basically said to stop crying, crying was not allowed, we needed to get our crap together. That’s what it was there for, to get things back under control but it seemed to be in relation to the little crying girl.

Guys I was so freaked! This part obliterated me! It pushed me out so hard that I couldn’t come back into my own body no matter what I tried. And I was shifting back and forth HARD! What that means for me is that in this instance, for a maybe 15 seconds I was the little girl, head on lap crying, then bang, I would be pulled really hard, full of anger and taking control, breathing hard and telling the girl no crying, then I’d switch back to her again, then back to the presence again. It was rough! It’s very disconcerting, confusing, frustrating, sometimes scary…I was in my head trying to come back but I couldn’t. I couldn’t come back until the presence decided enotions were under control and they receded.

When I came back I was not okay with that alter pushing me out like that. We had to have a talk about it with ny therapist’s help. It wasn’t really a talk because the presence didn’t talk to me but it listened.

My therapist and I delved into what happened and decided that the presence is a “protector” part. It makes sense. It wasn’t safe to feel or cry or anything, that had to be tightly contained. There may be memories there but I can’t remember if my therapist thinks the girl has them or the protector has them.

After that whole thing we talked about drawing being done with her present but I can be in my own area of her office and only show her the drawings if I want to.

There’s actually a 2nd drama that happened during this week’s session but that sounds like a part 2. Let’s do that later.

Talk about an update!

Please excuse any crazy spelling and grammar. I wanted to get this out to you guys and I’m fighting not to sleep; chronic illness stuff blah blah blah you know what I mean. Okay see you guys for part 2.

I’m often glad when I say something in therapy that reveals I’ve misunderstood something that my therapist has said. It tends to, no, it always makes both of us stop with wide eyes, shake our heads in confusion and then look at each other like we’re both aliens before realizing that apparently we need to start over clarify an important point.

This situation happened during our session this week and it was very important because it was holding up my progress.

My therapist has asked me for a long time now to try and identify my various parts, at least to the best of my ability. I have strong impressions of some and I do outright know some of them. I’ve been afraid though. I told her that I am afraid, me, the core personality that’s usually here. I wanted her to really get that I have my own feelings that needed to be acknowledged apart from all of this dissociation stuff.

My fear was coming from the assignment of needing to identify my parts. I was afraid that if I delved into that I would also discover why they exist; I would see their memories, things I may not be ready for yet. I was afraid that I would start reliving trauma, things like that. I thought I’d get lost in all of that darkness.

I told her about my fears and assumptions and she was really surprised because I hadn’t understood what work she wanted me to do and what work she wanted us to do together.

Her thought was only very surface for me. Just identify the part on a surface level really. It’s more like, okay there’s an 8 year old…oh hmmm, there’s a part that doesn’t speak, she’s maybe 5 years old okay…etc but I don’t need to go further into the why’s or anything.

What she wants me to do then is to stop. I do all other work only with her during our therapy sessions so she can be with me/us and talk to us, listen, watch or stop things and bring it back to safety if things are going too far.

I’ve never done any real work with my alters. There’s never been a program or a method so-to-speak so I didn’t understand what she was thinking and she couldn’t envision anyone even thinking they’d have to do trauma work at home alone so it didn’t occur to her to really spell out extra, single detail.

Communication people! Haha!

I’m actually excited. Feeling vulnerable but excited. We’ll see how things start out. First I have to start with identifying my parts. Hmmm…

Hello dear readers. It’s time for another episode of “oh look, she’s back after she said she’d be around more, AGAIN.”

Yes, I am the worst and that actually brings me to the title of today’s entry: which blog is this? It would actually be more appropriate to ask, what kind of blog is this? No… that’s not right either. The issue I’m struggling with when I think about posting sometimes is that I started this off mostly as a bipolar disorder blog, well sort of and… huh…maybe a place to talk about abuse? I can’t even remember now. BUT, eventually, when I became aware that I have Dissociative Identity Disorder, I also added that as a theme of this blog, however it came much later.

What I struggle with is, I don’t know how many of you were/are here for bipolar stuff, how many of you are/were here for abuse stuff and how many of you are/were here for DID stuff.

I feel guilty as if perhaps my shift into speaking so much about abuse or DID and not as much about bipolar disorder alienated my readers who had come here for information/support about that. Or perhaps if I want to talk about bipolar disorder, those who are only here for abuse or DID will be pushed back.

I have a post I’d like to do about the importance of sleep meds in bipolar disorder but I honestly don’t believe that there are any bipolar readers left here anymore because I’ve driven them all off.

I have a post to write about being completely overwhelmed by trauma and therapy when your system has been shutdown for so long but I feel bad talking about it because I haven’t talked about bipolar disorder enough AT ALL!

I’d like to post about the desire to be loved/liked/desired and how it manifests on instagram and makes you feel awful.

I’d like to talk about my feelings on people who get diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and why people treat them like lepers.

See…I have a LOT to talk about but I feel like I haven’t lived up to the NAME of the blog by balancing the audience it’s supposed to be for. It makes me hesitate to post over and over and over…you guys… you have NO idea how many times I hesitate to post.

This doesn’t even BEGIN to address that I’ve never told you what really happened to me almost a year ago for months after, that is still effecting me now and definitely has a huge impact on my focus. However, this blog is not about that subject and I would need to start a new blog to whine and moan and groan over there. Hell no thanks! Yes, I just combined two word terms into one. That just happened.

What do you guys think?

I usually get about three comments but if any anonymous readers want to pop out and say something, go for it.

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Disclaimer

Please remember that I am NOT a doctor or a therapist. I am a patient and I am writing about my own experiences and information that I have gathered from various sources. This blog is not meant to provide medical advice to anyone. If you need help or if you are in crisis please call 911. There is also a suicide/crisis hotline that you can call at: 1-800-273-8255.